His voice will take your breath away. We talk to the Ghost Hounds singer about how he developed that instrument.
Fresh from a piano lesson, Ghost Hounds lead singer SAVNT walks in the door of a quiet coffee shop on the outskirts of Denver ready to have a long conversation about the road that led him here. You can tell he’s ready to lead a band to the next level. He sure looks the part in boots, jeans, a casually unbuttoned vintage-looking shirt, and silver jewelry everywhere you look.
He might be learning his way around the keyboard, but he’s mainly here to talk about his singing. It’s his voice — soulful and powerful, provocative and poignant — that’s the instrument that stops listeners in their tracks. Once you hear SAVNT (pronounced "savant") sing, you can’t unhear him. He was simply born for this.
The gift was just living there, in his vocal cords — which first became abundantly apparent when he sang a Montell Jordan song for his elementary school’s music teacher. That was that. No notes.
Born Stephan Marcellus Sertima, the recent Denver transplant was raised in New Jersey, which is where he first found his voice. It was a serendipitous discovery. “I was in fourth grade,” SAVNT remembers. “I’d just seen this movie called Double Platinum, with Brandy and Diana Ross. The next day at school, I pretended I was in the studio. And this girl across from me said, ‘Oh, my God. You should go sing for the class.’ So I did. I sang ‘This Is How We Do It.’”
It wasn’t long before SAVNT’s music teacher recognized that SAVNT wasn’t singing like other fourth-graders and that he had a prodigy on his hands. He promptly gave him a solo and then kept pushing the protégé to pursue music.
More praise and encouragement came from other quarters when he wasn’t looking for it. When SAVNT was in college, a neosoul artist teaching a master class told him, “You are something that the industry has not seen in a long time.” Later he had a chance to sing for H.E.R., and when she was giving feedback to all the hopefuls, she told him, “I have no notes for you. Keep doing what you’re doing. The industry needs somebody like you.”
But that kind of validation doesn’t pay the rent. So SAVNT took a day job at the Hollister store in Garden City, New Jersey. On the side, he was putting his original songs out on SoundCloud just to see what might happen.
The Voice happened.
As much as TV talent shows thrive on those ubiquitous cattle calls for auditions, it worked the other way around for SAVNT. One of those self-released singles on SoundCloud had been picked up by AfroPunk and racked up more than 700,000 plays. Once the producers from The Voice heard it in 2017, it piqued their interest, and they asked him to be on the show. Instead of auditioning like the thousands of other hopefuls, SAVNT was invited. He made it three episodes before exiting. While he was still in the running, though, his rich vocals became the benchmark for others. A coach on The Voice even told another contestant, “Just sing like SAVNT does.”
As much adoration as he receives for his voice, SAVNT is now determined to be more than his vocals. “They always say that singers are the worst musicians,” he says, “because we don’t really pay attention to the theory of it. You just pay attention to what it feels like. But I want to be the best musician that I can possibly be. So I picked up vocal lessons; then I started learning some theory; then I’m adding some piano. And now I’m about to pick up the guitar. I want to make sure that I’m a well-rounded musician.”
But it’s still his voice that opens doors for him. Most recently — when he was playing in the same circles in and around New York — he let his mind wander to what else might be out there. In the midst of that introspection, he had one more Sofar Sounds show booked in Brooklyn. It was raining, his heart wasn’t in it, nobody showed up for soundcheck, but he knew the show must go on. “I got up there and I did my thing. I was singing an alternative-soul song, ‘Renegade,’ and what I didn’t know was that the previous leader of Ghost Hounds was in the audience. He called the band and told them, ‘This is the guy you need, and you need him now.’ That was in December 2023, and I joined the band in January 2024.”
As the frontman of Ghost Hounds, which just came out with the album Almost Home, SAVNT knows that the players backing him are every bit as important to the established Ghost Hounds’ sound: Kristin Weber on fiddle, Joe Munroe on keys, Tyler Chiarelli on guitar, Thomas Tull on guitar, Sydney Driver on drums, and Bennett Miller on bass.
“When you’re performing solo, everybody kind of has to follow what you say. It’s like, ‘Stop over here.’ Or, ‘I want to crescendo here.’ But when you’re in the band, with the incredibly talented musicians in my band, we’re creating these songs where each note informs the next one,” he says.
“I feel like I’m with a team, and that’s the first time I think I’ve ever felt that way. They already had momentum and a voice, and I always want to be intentional about honoring that voice.”
While SAVNT spent years identifying as an alternative-soul singer — he cites Sam Cooke and John Legend as two of his most influential vocal heroes — he still finds himself choosing rock or country songs. “So we are definitely moving forward as a country-rock band with heavy soul influence,” he says. “Because you can’t wash the soul off me.”
SAVNT & Lainey Wilson on “Before You Leave”
The new Ghost Hounds album has 11 tracks, two of which are collaborations — one with Americana legend Patty Griffin on her “Long Ride Home,” and one with country superstar Lainey Wilson called “Before You Leave.” SAVNT recalls the recording session with Wilson fondly. “We already had a really powerful song. We just needed another voice. We reached out to Lainey, and she said, ‘Yeah. I actually like you guys.’”
When she came to Pittsburgh (where the band is based) to record with SAVNT, he says, they were just vibing. “It was literally like working with a friend for about three hours. I was actually talking to her about her song ‘Whiskey Colored Crayon.’ That’s one of my favorite songs on her new album. I have it on repeat because I know people who have been affected by alcohol, and the song lets me put myself in the space of that little kid.”
Other Songs SAVNT Has on Repeat
“Are You Gonna Go My Way?” (Lenny Kravitz)
“Broken Halos” (Chris Stapleton)
“Ain’t No Way” (Aretha Franklin)
“Believe” (Brooks & Dunn)
Almost Home Track List
- “She Runs Hot”
- “Past the Point of Rescue”
- “Down in the Dark”
- “Long Way Around”
- “You’ll Never Find Me”
- “Broken Roses”
- “Eugene’s Trick Bag”
- “Before You Leave” (feat. Lainey Wilson)
- “House a Home”
- “Lonely Last Night”
- “Long Ride Home” (feat. Patty Griffin)
You can catch the Ghost Hounds live at the Monster Energy Supercross FanFest in Pittsburgh on April 26.
